friday th ovember 201

www.britishschool.org.cn/sanlitun

Dear Parents,

Welcome to this week’s edition of the newsletter. There have been lots of exciting activities going on in school as always and you can read about them in this newsletter. I would also like to draw your attention to two important areas of school life that have taken place over the past week.

First of all, many of our staff took part in CPD training last weekend, focusing on initial steps into leadership. Phil Hodgson, Head of Durham Learning and Training Services, delivered professional development to teachers and TAs from both Sanlitun and Shunyi schools. There were over fifty staff that took part and the training was well received. I have decided to share this with you, as it is important to acknowledge the ongoing development needs for our staff, and that teachers are kept at the forefront of latest developments in the world of education.

Secondly, Andy Duffield, Nord Anglia’s Head of Health and Safety, visited our school on Thursday and Friday to do his yearly audit. I am pleased to say that feedback was extremely positive about systems we have in place to protect children, parents and staff. I will be feeding back his report to the Parent Association at our next meeting. If you are able to attend, it would be great to share the report with you.

Finally, with International Day not far away, we look forward to celebrating our diversity and I hope to see you for the Parade of Flags on the 10th November.

Kindest regards,

David Laird

Friday 6th November 2015

meSSAge From our PrINCIPAl

Early Years Building enjoyed Pastries with Parents...


STAr CITIZeNS THIS WeeK

reCePTIoNClovis lim; emily Yeung

KeY STAge oNelily Kuenstner; Najma Issack

Tiger He; Zara lambert

KEY STAgE TWoCeline Zeng; eliza rinkema

Shanay Budhdev

Next week your child will bring the certificate home

explaining why they are a Star Citizen.

“What did you see in Meg the witch’s secret cupboard?” asked the teacher.

“I saw some ghost pooh and wriggly worms,” replied the student.

“Did you see any green slimy frogs or bat wings?” asked the teacher.

“No, I didn’t!” replied the student. “But I saw some creepy crawly spiders and juicy red blood. I think she’s going to put them all in her witch’s brew.”

“Yuk!” sighed the teacher…….’But,’ he thought, ‘it’s good that you are learning to ask and answer open and closed questions as well as using the past tense in a fun dialogue!’

KS1 eAl looKeD IN meg’S SeCreT CuPBoArDBy Keith olive, EAL Specialist Teacher

Year 1 Miles: “I saw wriggly worms in the witch’s cupboard!”

Year 1 Anna: “I saw ghost pooh in the witch’s cupboard!”

uPComINg eVeNTS

9th - 11th NovemberInternational Week

10th NovemberInternational Day and

Parade of Flags@ Primary Campus

9am - 9.20am

11th NovemberYear 4 Trip to

Miniature World

12th - 13th NovemberSchool Closed to Students

for Staff Training

17th - 18th NovemberLast ASAs for Autumn Term


HAlloWeeN PuPPeT SHoW SHoWS eAl VoICe TAleNTBy Keith olive, EAL Specialist Teacher

A short story about a cat and a bat, who popped out of a witch’s hat and then met some spooky characters, provided the basis for a Halloween puppet show performed and filmed by several eAl groups.

They first studied and improved the descriptive narrative by adding adjectives and adverbs. Then, they practised the dialogue to make it flow. After that, they made the puppets and rehearsed the show. Finally, the show was filmed and reviewed.

While learning to be ‘voice-actors’ and working together getting familiar with the script, the students naturally began to use expressive voices and made the puppets come alive. This was scary considering who the spooky characters were. Viz: a witch, a vampire, a ghost, a monster, a mummy, a werewolf, Frankenstein and a skeleton…. eeeeeeeeeK!

The voice-actors of Year 3 showing their puppets. The voice-actors of Year 5 showing their puppets.

The cat asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m a skeleton,” replied the skeleton.

“What do you do?” asked the bat.

“I rattle my bones!” he said.

“oooooooh!!!” said the cat to the bat, “We’d better pop back into the hat. It’s scary here!” So they did. Pop! Pop!

Year 3 Performing ‘The Cat and the Bat’ puppet show.


FIREWoRKSBy roxanne Wood, Year 1 lions Class Teacher

This week Year one have been learning all about fireworks and the explosive sounds they make. We made scratch art pictures using 3 steps across the week. Have a look at some of the finished products produced and how we made to that point. Year one also discovered that fireworks are amazing but they can also be dangerous if we don’t keep ourselves safe.

There’s more, using amazing adjectives we wrote an acrostic poem about fireworks and typed them up on to the computer. All of these activities made us very excited, especially when we saw the firework dance in lions class assembly on Friday afternoon!


YeAr 4’S ToPIC CoNTINueS WITH A BANg!By Beth Dopson and laura mcgregor, Year 4 Class Teachers

As part of our journey around the world, we are currently visiting Africa! During our english unit on explanation texts, we learnt all about drums and how they work. In music we learnt about African drumming.

our Design and Technology project was to design and create an African drum. First we investigated the materials we collected from home, thinking carefully about what would make a good shell or the best drumhead. We then used this, and our knowledge from other subject areas, to design our drums. once we were happy with our designs we carefully worked together to create them, making modifications where necessary.

We then looked at some typical African patterns and designs and sketched some ideas of how we might decorate our drums. We choose a method that we thought would work best and started to decorate our drums. once this is complete we will carry out evaluations of the process to see if we created a successful drum and to identify how we could have improved.


BlANK CANVAS IN BeIjINg KIDSBy Kirsty mcCarra, Year 3 Parrots Class Teacher and Art & DT Subject leader

read all about it! Year 5 children at BSB Sanlitun have hit the pages of Beijing Kids this month, showcasing their fantastic art work in November’s Blank Canvas spread.

As part of their topic, Space, the children created artworks showing what the school might look like through the perspective of an alien. They drew inspiration from artist Paul Klee who is largely associated with symbolist and abstract art. In this style they then created their own imaginative works using oil pastels to display their own ideas of how an alien might perceive the school.

Cristiano Grau: My work is supposed to inspire colourful ideas in people who don’t have inspiration. It also shows an alien’s point of view, which is an over-exaggerated human point of view!

Annie Zhang: My piece of art represents our school with bright colours to attract people’s attention. I used my finger to smudge some of the colours to make the effect better.

As well as seeing these works on display in school, you can grab your copy of this month’s Beijing Kids to see more of the amazing abstract art for yourself.

Chloe Huang, Year 5 Flamingos Cristiano Grau, Year 5 Pelicans

Leroy Lai, Year 5 Flamingos Lillian Lian, Year 5 Flamingos


STAFF AT SANlITuN AND SHuNYI TAKe oN CHANge!By louise Bateman, Year 1 leopards Class Teacher and CPD & NAu leader

Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Senior leaders, Specialists and 1:1 learning Support Helpers took the opportunity to come together last weekend and receive high quality, practical, thought provoking training on how to lead and impact change within a school.

our staff had the fantastic opportunity to collaborate with The British School of Beijing, Shunyi and draw on best practise and develop their own Change Projects, which will be going on in school during this academic year.

The motivation, passion and drive of the participants were noted by the facilitator, Phil Hodgson from Durham County. Phil is involved in designing and delivering many Professional Development programmes in the UK for teachers and Head Teachers and has also worked with the British School of guangzhou on a Change Project Initiative, which our new Principal, David Laird, has brought with him as an exciting new opportunity. Both Phil and David are very much looking forward to seeing how the projects develop and have a positive impact on the teaching and learning of the children in both schools.

Since being back at school, the participating staff members have been working on their project proposals and will be supported and coached by the Senior leadership team in order to reflect on their own pathways into leadership.

It is an exciting step forward in the Professional Development of our staff at BSB Sanlitun and one that I am very proud to be part of.

friday th ovember 201

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